Strategy pays off for Jurgen Nebelung ’04, winner of the Yarmouth Clam Festival Bike Race
DON MCEWAN
The Big Break
CHRISTOPHER PARKER GARDNER
Jurgen Nebelung ’04 takes a corner on his way to victory in the Yarmouth Clam Festival Bike Race.
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n these photographs, cyclist Jurgen Nebelung ’04 heads to victory at the popular and highly competitive Yarmouth Clam Festival Bike Race on July 8. Like any race — whether on feet, wheels, or hooves — strategy plays a huge role, so Nebelung offered to explain the running of the Yarmouth race, in which he was one of six cyclists from the Embrocation Cycling Journal team, based in Boston. The 36-mile Yarmouth race is a circuit race, meaning it’s over a closed course, in this case 10 laps of a 3.6-mile loop in and around the town center. “We had six racers for Yarmouth so we had some options,” he says. “Two rode the front to collect ‘primes’ — mid-race sprints for cash. A teammate and I paid attention to any breakaways. And two of our better sprinters stayed with the field to clean up” at the finish in case a final breakaway didn’t develop. Nebelung’s breakaway-focused teammate went with an early break. “But they came back,” he says. “Then, with four laps to go, I formed a break with six other riders, and we joined a lone rider already up the road.” From there to the finish, he tried to “ride smart, make my contribution to the breakaway effort, and wait for the right time to attack.” That moment came less than a mile from the finish. “The breakaway was a little complacent as to who was going to take up the pace in preparation for the sprint finish,” he says. “I took advantage of the disorganization and attacked to hold a gap all the way to the finish.” Nebelung, a newcomer to the team, relished the win. “I was a fairly anonymous guy in the bunch, kind of a wild card,” he says. “After the win I was put on more breakaway duty, the guy who makes sure we get into the breakaway should one develop.” Nebelung and his wife, Isabel Aley ’03, live in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.
48 Bates W I N TER 2011
At the finish Nebelung is exultant.
During the awards ceremony he acknowledges his win.
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